The effect of auditory stimulation on responses to tactile stimuli

Abstract

The detectability of a 500-Hz sinusoidal vibration on the fingertip lasting 1 sec was only slightly affected by simultaneously presenting a moderately intense auditory stimulus of the same frequency. However, both hit and false alarm rates for detecting tactile stimuli were significantly higher on tone than on no-tone trials. This finding, coupled with the finding that magnitude estimations of tactile stimuli were higher on tone than on no-tone trials, was interpreted as support for the hypothesis that auditory stimulation can facilitate neural activity in the tactile sensory system. © 1974, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.